Results tagged “coastguard”

Those boats in the water today—it's the Coast Guard! "The U.S. Coast Guard will be conducting exercises in the East River, Hudson River, and New York Harbor between 9 AM and 3 PM on Tuesday 9/15/09. Expect additional Coast Guard vessel activity in these areas." Just be glad for the warning—DC didn't get one and CNN, after overhearing on the radio the words "you will be fired upon" and "bang bang bang," decided that shots were fired on the Potomac, started a Friday kerfuffle when it was just a training exercise the Coast Guard didn't disclose to the public (and apparently the news media).

NYC had a government plane flying too close to Lower Manhattan buildings oops-y in April, and today, Washington D.C. had reports of a U.S. Coast Guard boat firing at another vessel on the Potomac River. Of course, the Coast Guard now says it was a training exercise and that no shots were actually fired, but it is September 11 when the nation is worried about terrible stuff happening so the incident caused the media to freak out, especially since, the Washington Post reports, "The incident occurred near the Memorial Bridge, at approximately the same time that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were laying a wreath at the Pentagon memorial, a short distance away."

     

Yesterday's Parade of Ships help begin the 22nd annual Fleet Week celebrations. Today's events include viewing of ships at Pier 45 in Manhattan and the Stapleton Pier in Staten Island, USMC/Air Ground airborne insertion/extraction of helicopters with combat Marines in Coney Island and Marine Day—with martial arts demonstrations and military working dogs (!)—in Central Park. Plus, at the Intrepid, it's the reopening of the Growler! More details here.

Fleet Week is officially kicked off, with today's Parade of Ships and the military flyover. You'll be seeing thousands of sailors, marines, and members of the Coast Guard around town over the next week—and you can also see them at special events (more details here). The event celebrates the sea services and yesterday rocker Joan Jett met some servicemen and servicewomen as she toured the USS Iwo Jima.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 22nd annual Fleet Week celebrations, which run through May 27. Thousands of sailors, marines, and Coast Guardsmen from the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard will be on hand during this celebration of sea services. At 10 a.m., there will be a Parade of Ships, which will pass the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, proceed north through New York Harbor and the Hudson River, and to the George Washington Bridge. The ships will pass the WTC site between 11 a.m. and noon, and, according to the Navy, "each ship will render honors in memory of the sacrifices made on Sept. 11, 2001." And, there will also be a military flyover as part of the festivities—don't freak out!

The whale that was spotted in the New York Harbor yesterday has presumably escaped New York safely.

Governor Paterson did his part in helping prepare Texas for the carnage caused by Hurrican Ike, sending down 33 local personnel and military aircraft as part of the relief effort. The group included five pararescue jumpers from Long Island's National Guard there to be "another pair of eyes" in rescuing those hit by Ike. Newsday reports that the North Shore Animal League is also trying to curb the disaster sending down their mobile unit to rescue animals in shelters evacuated by the hurricane. Although residents were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, up to 140,000 are reported to have stayed behind. Ike has claimed four victims thus far in Louisiana and Texas and Houston will have an imposed curfew this week since the city is still without power.

In two separate incidents, police and Coast Guard personnel pulled 19 individuals--including children--from the water after their boats swamped. Sixteen people were pulled from a 40-foot Sea Ray boat approximately a mile from shore and submerged so that its passengers were ankle-deep in the Long Island Sound Friday. Seven of the rescued were children. The boat began foundering when an exhaust hose broke, causing water to fill the boat. Separately, three Staten Islanders were rescued from the Hudson River near Peekskill when their sinking boat was in the path of a fuel barge.

There are more answers and questions regarding the disappearance of a NJ woman from a cruise ship. The Norwegian Cruise Line company said surveillance videos show 46-year-old Mindy Jordan alone in her room and falling from her cabin's balcony, and the FBI said, "The information that we have acquired does not suggest a crime, but that is not definitive," and said it would continue with the investigation (the FBI did seize the cruise's railings).

While bad weather stopped the search for a New Jersey woman who disappeared from a Norwegian Dawn cruise ship off the coast of Atlantic City, the FBI is now investigating her disappearance.

How do you get rid of an unwanted fire truck? Simple, put it on Craigslist!

Luxury cruise line Cunard has many ships, but last night was the first time that its Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth 2, and new Queen Victoria ships were in the "same port at the same time." And the port was the NewYork Harbor, under fireworks and gaze of the Statue of Liberty.

Crews are working to remove oil from Long Island shoreline that spilled into the ocean sometime on Thanksgiving Day and started washing ashore. Surfers called the Coast Guard to report "tar-like balls of oil." A number of agencies, including the Coast Guard and NY State DEP, are working on the cleanup. The spill seems to be about 500 gallons of no. 6 oil, an unrefined bunker oil, and Newsday reports the samples from the spill...

Yesterday morning, surfers contacted the Coast Guard about "tar-like balls of oil washing up" on the shoreline of Lido Beach, near Jones Beach on Long Island. The surfers said they also had oil on their wet suits. The spill seems to be about 3000 feet wide and 1500 feet long. Now the Coast Guard, working with other local, state and federal agencies, are trying to figure out where the spill is coming from as they...

Somehow, a tanker managed to strike the Ambrose Light navigation aid early Sunday morning. The Ambrose Light is a 76-foot structure that sits 12 miles southeast of Staten Island and, according to the Coast Guard, "watches over the main shipping lanes to New York Harbor." The 799-foot tanker Axel Spirit "slammed" into the light, which is usually visible for 18 miles. Now the light is not rotating and, therefore, is not reliable. A commercial pilot...

Families and friends are mourning the deaths of Robert Chacon and John Isello, two friends who died when their motorboat capsized in the Ambrose Channel Saturday night. Chacon, Isello and two other friends were on a 24-foot fishing boat when their vessel hit a tugboat's towline.

A motorboat crashed into a tugboat pulling a barge last night and two motorboat passengers died after the vessel overturned. The incident occurred in the Ambrose Channel, near the Verrazano Bridge.

During his weekly radio address yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg proposed that Governors Island be turned into the site of a sprawling public health institute that he would bankroll with funds from his own private foundation. After the city bought the island for $1 from the federal government several years ago, the former military site and Coast Guard station has been relatively underutilized. Bloomberg's plan envisions an institute that would draw health experts from around the world to work off the southern tip of Manhattan.

Another noose was found Thursday afternoon - and this time, it was outside the Church Street Post Office. Um, WTF is going on?

Yesterday morning, two Bangladeshi brothers jumped off a freighter ship that was leaving the Port of Newark, "somewhere between the Kill van Kull and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge." One brother was found, while the other is still missing.

Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, better known to many as the Little Red Lighthouse, is located right under the George Washington Bridge, in Fort Washington Park. And the Parks Department is having the 15th Annual Little Red Lighthouse Festival today between 12PM and 5PM, with hayrides, face painting, the antics of a stiltwalker, live music, and tours of Manhattan's only lighthouse.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction at the Mobil gas station off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, a suspicious death on Cornelia St. in Queens, and a pedestrian struck at Buffalo St. and Hylan Blvd. on Staten Island.
• The Dept. of Buildings declined to revoke permits for Donald Trump's planned 46-story Trump SoHo "hotel" on Spring St. near the Holland Tunnel.
• A State Bridge Task Force completed its inspection of New York's 49 steel deck-truss bridges and found them all to be structurally sound. Still, a bill before the Senate to boost federal spending on bridge maintenance would direct 10% of a $1 billion increase, or $100 million, to New York State.
• A Coast Guard vessel conducting a routine homeland security patrol came upon a 27-year-old man treading water without a life jacket about 400 yards southeast of Staten Island's South Beach.
• Gridskipper has a guide to establishments that brew, distill, and ferment all kinds of potent potables right here in NYC.
• The Gowanus Lounge reports that an F train express line could arrive as early as next year. Or maybe around 2012 or early 2013.
• The New York Times describes the run of the vintage six-car 'A' train yesterday on the line's 75th anniversary.
• IvyGate reports that bars surrounding Columbia University will all be getting ID scanners to keep out underage patrons, and Columbia itself will be picking up the tab for the devices.

If you were looking at the Gothamist Newsmap, you might have noticed this alert: "Shark Sighting | Beach 108th St X Ocean Side Queens, NY | 9/1/2007 11:41 a.m." Well, we guess the sharks wanted to make an appearance before the beaches closed for the year!

A Brooklyn resident who went swimming in the buff off Long Beach was lost overnight until the Coast Guard found him yesterday morning. Newsday reports that Neal Mello went for a swim around 9:30PM on Saturday night. He "left his clothes, phone and wallet beside a friend, who then fell asleep on the sand near Edwards Avenue."

Yesterday afternoon, the Fire Department responded to a call about nine people, including seven children, who fell ill when carbon monoxide leaked from a boat's exhaust system. A number of adults and children were aboard the Lady V, a 39-foot cabin "miniyacht," was in Jamaica Bay, off Brooklyn.

Yesterday, the odd news about the NYPD's arrest of three men involved with an egg-shaped submarine near the Queen Mary 2, off the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, revealed that a Brooklyn artist was behind the whole benign operation. Police Commissioner called artist Duke Riley's stunt "marine mischief," adding that the "creative craft of three adventuresome individuals" did "not pose any terrorist threat."

Totally weird: Authorities have found a "make-shift" submarine with three men in it near the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. WABC 7 reports that the men may have been trying to "set sail off Brooklyn."

The fuel tanker, the White Sea, that ran aground near the Ambrose Channel off Coney Island and Sandy Hook, NJ, yesterday morning, is still stuck in the waters. An attempt to dislodge the 800-foot ship carrying over half a million barrels of "low-sulfur fuel oil" failed last night, so the Coast Guard began plans to "lighten" (remove) 110,000 barrels of fuel after the ship couldn't be moved. Coast Guard officials are hopeful that it can be dislodged during tonight's high tide around 8PM.

WCBS 880 reports that an oil tanker, the White Sea, has run aground in the Ambrose Channel, which is a shipping channel south of Lower New York Bay, off Staten Island, Coney Island, Breezy Point and NJ's Sandy Hook. The Coast Guard says that there are no reports of injuries.